In general, a furniture hinge is a structure which is mounted on a piece of furniture piece such as a sink or a closet and is used as a means for opening and closing a furniture door. The furniture hinge serves to absorb an external load occurring in the process of opening and closing the furniture door to minimize a noise. In addition, the furniture hinge has a built-in shock-absorbing damper as a means for extending the lifespan of the furniture.
Herein, the shock-absorbing damper mainly employs a method of absorbing an opening and closing load of the furniture door through the interaction of various built-in components including a valve that controls the flow rate of a working fluid while being reciprocated by a piston and a check valve that controls the flow rate of the working fluid while being reciprocated by the valve.
For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the present applicant has proposed a shock-absorbing damper (Korean Patent No. 10-0760518) as a technology that consists of a cylinder, a piston 20 supported by a spring 30 accommodated in the cylinder, a valve 40 that is reciprocated by the piston 20, and a check valve 60 that is coupled to a projection of the valve 40.
In this case, as shown in FIG. 1(a), when a pressure is applied to the piston 20, the working fluid within the cylinder moves by an amount corresponding to the amount of compression of the valve 40 in an arrow direction on the drawing sheet via a flow path or a gap 41 so that the check valve 60 moves along the outer circumference of the projection of the valve 40 to control the pressure of the fluid.
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 1(b), when the pressure applied to the piston 20 is released, the working fluid within the cylinder moves by an amount corresponding to the amount of returning of the valve 40 in an arrow direction on the drawing sheet via the flow path or a gap so that the check valve 60 returns to its original position along the outer circumference of the projection of the valve 40 to control the pressure of the fluid.
However, the shock-absorbing damper is configured in such a manner that the check valve 60 reciprocates by an amount corresponding to the amount of movement of the piston 20. Thus, in the case where a strong or weak external force is applied to the piston 20, the flowing speed of the working fluid cannot be controlled only by the check valve 60.
In particular, in the process of manufacturing the shock-absorbing damper, a method is used in which the number or weight of the check valve 60 is adjusted to control the flowing speed of the working fluid, but it is substantially impossible to separately adjust the number or weight of the check valve 60 to fit the size or weight of the furniture door, thus making it difficult to realize the diffusion of shock-absorbing damper.
In addition, in the process of manufacturing the shock-absorbing damper, a method is used in which the number or size of the flow path or the gap 41 is adjusted to control the flowing speed of the working fluid, but it is substantially impossible to separately adjust the number or size of the flow path or the gap 41 to fit the size or weight of the furniture door, thus making it difficult to realize the diffusion of shock-absorbing damper.
Therefore, there is an urgent need for research on a device in which the piston 20 is always operated at a uniform speed irrespective of the size or weight of the furniture door in a state in which the number or weight of the check valve 60 accommodated in the shock-absorbing damper as well as the number of size of the flow path or the gap 41 are not changed.